1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to a method and apparatus to display a map, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus to efficiently display an electronic map on a display device of limited size.
2. Description of the Related Art
Navigation terminals have become popularized owing to the development of information technology (IT). Navigation terminals calculate a current location based on a signal received from a plurality of global positioning system (GPS) satellites and. Furthermore, navigation terminals direct a route between the current location and a destination via an electronic map.
Navigation terminals are widely used by vehicles frequently requesting a route to be found. In order for a driver of a vehicle that is traveling to check information regarding a current location and a route between the current location and a destination by using the navigation terminal while driving, the navigation terminal should efficiently display the information so that the driver can check the information as fast as possible. Specifically, in order to direct the driver in a particular driving direction at an intersection, the navigation terminal displays more detailed information regarding an intersection area. In order to more efficiently display the intersection area, navigation terminals conventionally display distant and near views to transfer the more detailed information regarding the intersection area to the driver. For example, a screen of a navigation terminal may be divided into two parts in which a distant view is displayed on a left part in order to check an overall route to a destination, and a near view of the intersection area is displayed on a right part so that the driver can obtain important driving information more quickly and conveniently.
However, since the driver has a very short period of time to check information displayed on the screen of the navigation terminal, the driver can be confused by the conventional displaying of distant and near views on the divided screen of the navigation terminal. Also, if a small size screen is divided into two parts and information is displayed on two smaller portions of the small screen, checking the information in a short period of time is more difficult.
Therefore, a map displaying method and apparatus to display more map information on a single screen and enabling a user to easily take in the map information are needed.